Babyshambles’ Drew McConnell discusses second Pete Doherty solo album

Babyshambles member and solo artist Drew McConnell, otherwise known as Helsinki, has spoken out about the likelihood of a second Pete Doherty solo album.

“That song, ‘Flags Of The Old Regime’, is part of an extended session that we did with Stephen Street. We recorded a bunch of songs. An album? Possibly – it would be great to finish his solo record,” said McConnell to NME. The recently released single was a tribute to Amy Winehouse and featured McConnell on bass.

Speaking about the work done so far on the album, he added: “There were quite a few different approaches. It was a bit more live than ‘Grace/Wastelands’ [released in 2009]. It was dead positive. There was a handful of songs. I think there’d have to be a few more recordings for an album. He definitely played us enough for an album, but we recorded less than 10.”

Pete Doherty recently said a second solo LP will “definitely” happen. “I think that’s going to happen quite naturally,” said The Libertines man. “I’ll do a solo record, definitely. I’ve got plenty of songs. I’m going to try not to put them online and put them together as an album.”

Speaking to NME, Doherty also discussed getting clean and Amy Winehouse, saying he was “haunted” by the fact that the two never completed any of their musical projects. “Whenever we used to get together to do music, she was always very, very critical of all the new ideas that I had,” he commented. “So we never ended up getting anything finished. I’m haunted by that.”

When asked why he finally decided to get off drugs, he said: “I really needed to do it. To be honest, I was in a pretty poor state, physically, y’know?” He added: “I reached the end of the road. It was make or break. There was no easy way out. I just couldn’t carry on in the state I was in. I suppose, really, I went out for a little break, and I got clean by accident, and really I didn’t really expect… I tried so many times before… half-arsed attempts to get clean and do these little patch-up jobs.”